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In 2371, Ayala was a member of Chakotay's crew aboard the Val Jean. When GulEvek's ship, the Vetar, attacked the Maquis vessel in the Badlands, he attempted to make repairs to the bridge. After the Val Jean was transported to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker's array, Ayala was brought aboard the array for testing by the Caretaker, then returned to the Val Jean unharmed. He later boarded Voyager along with Chakotay and Tuvok at CaptainKathryn Janeway's invitation. When it was revealed that Tuvok was a spy for the Federation, Ayala attempted to attack him, but was held back by Chakotay. He was issued a compression phaser rifle and beamed to the array with an away team to scout for Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres with Tuvok, but was soon returned to Voyager by the Caretaker. The Val Jean was later destroyed after it rammed a Kazon carrier vessel, and the Maquis were forced to join Voyager's crew for the journey home. (VOY: "Caretaker")

Ayala was transported aboard Voyager with B'Elanna Torres and at least two other Maquis crew. In an alternate timeline created several years later by a spatial rift, he was trapped in the transporter room with the Maquis. Chakotay, who originated from the time period where Voyager encountered the rift, injected Torres and Ayala with a chroniton-infused serum which allowed them to move between the time periods, to retake main engineering from Seska. This alternate timeline was later erased when a chroniton field brought Voyager back into temporal sync. (VOY: "Shattered")

In 2372, Tuvix, an individual created after a transporter accident fused Tuvok and Neelix together, tried to gather support from Voyager bridge crew, including Ayala, after Captain Janeway decided to restore Tuvok and Neelix. His pleading went unanswered. (VOY: "Tuvix")

Later that year, Ayala was stranded on Hanon IV when the Kazon took control of the ship. (VOY: "Basics, Part I") He was initially part of Chakotay's team, searching for food and water. Along with Lieutenant Torres, Ayala created a diversion to lure the Hanonians away from the cave in which several Voyager crew members were trapped. (VOY: "Basics, Part II")

In 2376, when the Tarakis memorial began transmitting telepathic memories to Voyager, Ayala was one of the crew members stricken by visions caused by the memorial. (VOY: "Memorial")

In 2377, he was attacked by Tuvok, who was under the mental control of a Bajoranvedek named Teero Anaydis. Tuvok mind-melded with Ayala and other Maquis, inciting them to mutiny and overthrow Captain Janeway. He once again served as Chakotay's right-hand man, and guarded him in the captain's ready room. He was present when Chakotay tested Tuvok's loyalty by ordering Tuvok to fire a phaser at Captain Janeway. Ayala was returned to normal along with the rest of the Maquis once Tuvok recovered. (VOY: "Repression")

Later that year, when nearly the entire Voyager crew was abducted by Dr. Kadan, his identity was reassigned to that of a laborer at a power plant, working for the Quarren. He worked at the same power plant as Seven of Nine, Janeway, Torres, and Tuvok. Ayala's personnel file at the plant was one of many Voyager crew files accessed by Tuvok, whose memory was still partially intact. (VOY: "Workforce", "Workforce, Part II")

In 2376, when Kes returned to seek revenge against the Voyager crew, Ayala and a security team was sent to intercept her, and he was injured by her telekinetic abilities. The timeline was changed when Kes time traveled to 2371, and Janeway had these sections evacuated when Kes returned. (VOY: "Fury")

Not long after he joined Voyager, a jealous Neelix worried that Kes might be romantically interested in Ayala, among other Voyager crew members. (VOY: "Twisted") However, the Talaxianmorale officer soon altered his opinion of the man, even to the point of helping Ayala deal with the distance between him and the children, who were countless lightyears away from him. (VOY: "Initiations")

Ayala participated in Neelix's celebration of the 315th anniversary of First Contact, and was amused by Neelix's dancing. He later bade Neelix farewell outside the shuttlebay with the rest of the Voyager crew. (VOY: "Homestead")

Ayala's physical parameters have been used in a number of holographic simulations:

In Tuvok's Insurrection Alpha program, Ayala was ordered to take the helm after the Maquis were successful in commandeering Voyager. If the participant in the simulation decided to help the Starfleet crew, Ayala apprehended the participant and brought them to the brig. (VOY: "Worst Case Scenario")

Ayala was seen in the mess hall in the program created by The Doctor in order to improve Seven of Nine's social skills in 2374. (VOY: "One")

In Maquis garb, he was part of Reginald Barclay's holographic simulation of Voyager, programmed to act as one of Barclay's good friends in 2376. (VOY: "Pathfinder")

Ayala was played by Tarik Ergin, a regular extra for all seven years of Star Trek: Voyager. He was never specifically credited for playing Ayala, and was only credited as "Security Guard" in "Fury" and "Tactical N.D." in "Renaissance Man" – even though he worked at the conn in the latter episode. He only spoke in the episodes "Basics, Part II" ("Yeah" and "Come on!"), "The Gift" ("You'd better come down to the brig, ma'am."), "Fury" ("Stop where you are!"), and "Renaissance Man" ("No response.").

Ergin was directly addressed as Ayala in at least three episodes, "Faces", "Worst Case Scenario", and "Tuvix". In the first two instances, Ergin clearly responds to a command prefaced by the name "Ayala". In the latter, Tuvix calls out to Ayala by name, looking in the direction of mission ops, where only Ergin has been established to be at the time. Furthermore, in "The Gift", he has a short conversation with Janeway over the intercom system in which he self-identifies as Ayala. This instance is less clear, however, as Ergin is never actually seen during the conversation, only before and after it.

Ayala worked in main engineering in "Parallax" but was moved to the bridge by "The Cloud". He appeared in numerous episodes, usually standing at the master systems display or mission ops stations at the back of the bridge. He generally replaced Tuvok at tactical whenever he left the bridge, and also replaced Kim at the ops station during the first two seasons.